Happy 2nd Birthday

Today is Alyssa's 2nd birthday. I can't believe it, she is TWO already!!! It is amazing how fast time flies and it just makes me so sad sometimes.

These past two years have been amazing. I can't believe the little personality that she shows me everyday. Right now she is up in her crib singing "twigle, twigle" (twinkle, twinkle little star). She is such a smart little cookie. She knows her alphabet, she can count to 14, she can identify all of her letters and she can identify her numbers up to 14. She is starting to "sing" nursery rhymes and it is too adorable.

She really is an amazing person. Everyday I look at her and can't believe that I am her mom. I can't believe that I help create such a wonderful person. Everyday Alyssa makes me smile and laugh.

Every phase in life has always seem to get better. I hope it keeps getting better, because I am sitting here crying at the thought of her ever going to school or graduating or getting married. Why doesn't time stand still for us to enjoy these babies more??

Happy 2nd Birthday, Princess. You are such an amazing blessing to our lives and we love you SOOO much!!

He left me...

Gary's vacation time is over and he had to go back to work today. He was with me for the past three weeks.

Today isn't so bad because my mom came and picked up Alyssa for a few hours. So, it is just Morgan and me for a few hours and right now she is sleeping (go figure...LOL). I probably should be too, since Morgan decided to break her good sleeping streak last night and was fussy from 1:00 am until 3:30 am.

It is nice to be able to get some things done around the house though. I am never home without Alyssa so it feels a little strange.

We gave Alyssa her birthday present yesterday. Gary put together the kitchen on Sunday night so when she woke up on Monday morning she would see it. She loves her kitchen and all her new fake food!! She especially loves the phone that came with the kitchen. She carries it around with her everywhere. I guess because it is a more realistic looking phone. Tomorrow is her actual birthday. I am going to make cupcakes for her and I invited over the grandparents. She has gotten to celebrate her birthday four different times...LOL!! Lucky girl.

Not much else is going on around here. Morgan is 3 weeks old today.

The past three weeks

The past three weeks have been very overwhelming. It is definitely an adjustment to having a new baby in the house. When you have a two year old and a new baby, life is very demanding.

Morgan is doing wonderfully. Complete opposite of Alyssa (remember, I compare...LOL). With Alyssa, she would scream at the three hour mark to be fed and she would down four to six ounces at this point in her life. Morgan, on the other hand rarely screams to be fed. It is nice to actually be able to warm the bottle without the neighbors thinking that I am beating my kid.

Morgan will sleep anywhere from 3 to 5 hour stretches. Last night she slept from 1:30 ish to about 6:45. Even then, she probably would have taken the binky and slept a bit longer, but I felt that she needed to eat since it had been 5 hours.

Alyssa has been taking her time adjusting. When Morgan first came home, it was hard!! Alyssa was very clingy to me and very whiney. She would cry over everything (with real tears). There were times she didn't want me handling the baby and if Morgan was crying, so would Alyssa (while pushing me away crying "baby", "baby"). Bedtimes and naptimes have become more difficult too. When we would mention naptime or bedtime, Alyssa would take my (or Gary's) hand, walk us upstairs, brush her teeth, read our books and go to bed. Sometimes she would chit-chat with her animal friends in her crib before going to sleep, but she never cried. Lately she has been crying herself to sleep. She will go upstairs OK (because she wants to read books or play with her toys), but then when we put her in the crib, she is throwing fits. They are getting a little better, but she will still usually cry. It breaks my heart, but I know I can't cave in to her, or she will think I will do that all of the time.

Alyssa wants me all of the time. I can't leave without her throwing a fit and I have to be the one to put her to bed everynight. She will climb on me while I am feeding Morgan and make sure that I am giving her attention too.

She does love her though (I think)... She wants to point out her eyes, nose, mouth, ears and hair. She wants to kiss her all the time ("diss"...LOL). She likes to hold her bottle when I am feeding her. It is really cute to see Alyssa interact with Morgan. She won't call her anything but "baby" though. We tried "Morgan" and "sister" and she still calls her baby.

It IS getting better though. The first week was really tough. Especially since I was going through my "baby blues" period where I cried every five minutes. So, with me being an emotional basketcase and Alyssa acting out, I thought I was crazy for having another baby. Since my crying spells are fewer in between now, I can handle this. It is hard, but I am getting a better routine for myself and that really helps me.

Morgan is an absolute dream. She really is a good baby and we are so blessed to have two wonderful daughters. I had such a hard time picturing our family being a family of four and now I can't picture it without Morgan.

A long birth story

The birth story of Morgan Elizabeth is amazing. It is not at all how I had thought it would be. Which means it was completely opposite of the way Alyssa's birth story was.

When we finally got to the hospital at about 3:00 pm on Tuesday, they broke my water and checked me. I was 6 centimeters dilated. They got my stuff going and I waited for the contractions to get harder and quicker.

I really debated trying to get the epidural. With Alyssa they had tried FOUR times to get the epidural to work and they thought they had got it, but I still felt ALL of the pain from the pitocin induced contractions. So, I was leary. The epidural hurt, I remembered and for it to not work, was it worth it again? Plus, the epidural must have hit a nerve because my right leg was numb for over 8 hours. I couldn't even walk on it to go to the bathroom the next day after having Alyssa.

Well, it was probably about 5:00 pm and I was getting uncomfortable. The contractions were not unbearable, but they were painful. The nurse checked me again and she said I was still at 6. So, I figured I mine as well get the epidural. I figured that I would try and if it didn't work, at least I tried to get it again. So, she called the anesthesiologist and I waited patiently. The anesthesiologist came in at about 6:00 and I got the epidural. One poke and it was in. It was still uncomfortable and I hate that feeling, but it only happened once so I was happy. They did the test run and my BP started to drop. It dropped pretty low and I was feeling very nauseous. I could see Gary's face and he was worried. But, they kept putting antibiotics in my IV and after about 15 minutes, my BP started to rise again. I could start to feel the numbness in my legs and I couldn't feel the contractions as much. The epidural had worked!! I was so excited.

The nurse then checked me and I was 9 centimeters dilated. What the heck?!? How did I go from 6-9 so quickly. The doctor came in shortly after and checked me...I was 10. She asked if I was ready to push and I said that I didn't know. I wasn't feeling anything. No pressure, no contractions. She told me when I was having a contraction and to start pushing. But then my contractions started to slow down. She actually waited over 8 minutes for me to have one. She ordered to put me on pitocin to get those contractions regular. I wasn't worried, because the epidural was working and I wouldn't feel those pitocin contractions much.

So, we waited another 20 minutes for the pitocin to kick in. Then she came back and we started to push again. I could feel the pressure more and I knew better when to push, but it really wasn't that painful. All the sudden at 7:34 pm, Morgan was born and the doc put her on my belly. I couldn't believe that she was here. It didn't feel right because when I had Alyssa, I was in so much pain, I couldn't wait for it to be over. I almost felt like I didn't deserve Morgan because I wasn't in much pain.

Completely different from last time. With Alyssa, I wouldn't look at ANYONE! I kept my eyes shut as I had one painful contraction after another with NO BREAKS! This time, Gary, the doctor, the nurse and I were laughing at stupid jokes as I was pushing. Last time, I had third degree tears and tons of stitches. This time first degree tears with a couple stitches. (Morgan's head is much smaller...LOL). Last time, I yelled at Gary and my mom all of the time. This time, we joked and laughed. Total labor last time was about 9 hours, this time 4 1/2 hrs. (Although I had been feeling cramping for days, which was probably labor. I didn't have that with Alyssa). I was able to shower only 2 hours after having Morgan, where I couldn't shower for a day after Alyssa (because of the numb leg).

And this just starts the constant comparison of one child to the next...LOL!

Well, if you got through this you are amazing. I debated posting the birth story, but I figured that I wanted to have it written down for myself, so that is why I wrote it.

Morgan Elizabeth is here!

On Tuesday, March 7, 2006 at 7:34 pm, Morgan Elizabeth made her appearance to the world. She weighed 7 pounds, 14 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long.

We came home yesterday afternoon and are trying to adjust to being a family of four. My mom has been here helping a lot and Gary has a few weeks off of work to help me too (thank god)!!

Here is Morgan, only an hour or two old:


Daddy and Morgan:


Mommy, Daddy, Big Sis Alyssa (notice her shirt) and Baby Morgan:


Baby Morgan:


Going home:


Baby Morgan again:


I will post the birthing story and all that comes along with that soon. I just have to gather my thoughts and feelings right now because they are all crazy at the moment.

I'm off to have a baby

Last night I was having some really painful cramps, so I called my doctor this morning. She moved my appt from 4:00 to 10:45 to check me out. Well, my blood pressure was pretty high (158/94) and I am dilated 4-5 centimeters, so she wants me to head up to the hospital.

I asked if I could go home and get together some stuff before heading up there and she said that was OK. So, I am here waiting for Gary to get home, for my mom to bring Alyssa back (so we can take her to the IL's) and blogging away waiting for everyone else. I still have to get a few things together and we just put the carseats in this afternoon. I am so not ready for this. I guess my kids don't like to wait to be induced. They want to come when they feel ready. I guess that is the way it is supposed to be. I am glad that Morgan waited until the two big events were over before she made her appearance.

Speaking of, Alyssa's 2nd birthday party was a huge success!! We had 17 kids here and who knows how many adults. It was an absolute mad house, but it was a lot of fun. Alyssa had a great time and she got a lot of cool new toys to play with. Hopefully that will keep her pretty occupied when the new baby is here.

Some pictures from her party:

And after everyone left, she asked me to put on Sesame Street and after only 15 minutes, she was passed out...

Well, I am off now. I will post when I get home!

Morgan's room is done!!

Morgan's room is finally done!! We put some finishing touches on it today and I am so relieved. This was going to be the design for Alyssa's new room, but since she didn't want anything to do with a new room, we made it up for Morgan. It is definitely a very girly room. I wanted to upload more pictures, but this is the only one that sized correctly. All the other ones came out way too huge.



I am still hanging in there!! At my last doctor's appt, I was at 3 centimeters dilated and 80% effaced. I am getting so uncomfortable, but I am trying to not complain too much since I have less than a week left for sure!!

The plans for Alyssa's birthday party are still on!! I have to run to a couple stores tomorrow to order the cake and get some last minute supplies. This past week I have been cleaning and getting everything together. Everyone says that I am "nesting", but I think it is just how I get when I am about to have a bunch of people over my house. Maybe it is a combo of both this time. Gary has his "to-do" list and he better get it done before the party!!!